Over a year after two Indian soldiers were killed — one was beheaded and the other mutiliated — by Pakistani forces along the Line of Control (LoC) in January last year, outgoing Army Chief General Bikram Singh said on Thursday that India gave a befitting reply to Pakistan.

Talking to reporters before demitting office, he said, “It (retaliation) has been done. Please understand that when we use force, that use is from tactical to operational to strategic levels.”

Soon after the incident on January 8 last year, Singh had said the Army would “retaliate at a time and place of its choice”.

On Thursday, he said his comment was aimed “at the operational and tactical level”. Asked if India had retaliated, he said, “It has been done at the tactical level by local commanders… chiefs don’t get involved in it.”

While Lance Naik Hemraj was beheaded, the body of Lance Naik Sudhakar Singh was found mutiliated along the LoC in Poonch sector of J&K.

Asked about the possibility of a skirmish with China, Singh said, “I do not foresee this as we have got robust mechanisms which are in place. There is an understanding at the macro level… When I went to China, there was tremendous understanding between the two countries.”